Cookbook

Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy

Directions

You will need a food processor fitted with steel blade; a pasta-rolling machine. Put the flour in the bowl of the food processor, and process for a few seconds to aerate. Mix the whole eggs and egg yolks, olive oil, and ice water in a measuring cup with a spout. Start the machine running with the feed tube open. Pour in the liquids all at once (scrape in all the drippings), and process for 30 to 40 seconds, until a dough forms and gathers on the blade. If the dough does not gather on the blade or process easily, it is too wet or too dry. Feel the dough and add either more flour or more ice water, in small amounts. Process briefly, until the dough gathers on the blade, and clear the sides of the bowl. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface, and knead by hand briefly until it’s smooth, soft, and stretchy. Press it into a disk, wrap well in plastic wrap, and let it rest at room temperature for ½ hour. (You can refrigerate this dough for up to a day, or freeze it for a month or more. Defrost frozen dough in the refrigerator; return it to room temperature before rolling.)

To make tagliatelle: Cut the dough in six equal pieces. Keeping it lightly floured, roll each piece through the machine at progressively narrower settings into sheets that are 5 inches wide (or as wide as your machine allows) and at least 20 inches inches long. Cut the long sheets in half crosswise, giving you twelve strips, each almost a foot long.

One at a time, lightly flour each strip, and fold it over into thirds or quarters, creating a small rectangle with three or four layers of pasta. With a sharp knife, cut cleanly through the folded dough crosswise, at ½-inch intervals. Shake the cut pieces, opening them into long ribbons of tagliatelle. Dust them liberally with flour, gather into a loose nest, and set it on a floured towel or tray. Fold, cut, and unfurl all the strips this way, piling the tagliatelle in small floured nests. Leave uncovered to air-dry at room temperature, until ready to cook (or freeze the nests on the tray until solid, and pack in airtight ziplock bags).